Transcript: Senior WH Adviser Valerie Jarrett

Nov. 1, 2009

Page 13 of 18

And I think what you saw -- I agree with you; New York 23 is a
conservative place. You can't read too much into it. But I think it
is part of an overall continuum in which, after Bush, after McCain,
the conservative part of the party is saying, look, we lost not
because we were too moderate but because we were -- not because we
were too conservative; because we were too moderate.

And I think they will -- I think there is going to be a tight
leash on Republican leaders in terms of how far they can deviate from
a small government message in the next couple years.

WILL: Independents -- independents are moving to the right in
droves. Gallup says the number of Americans who identify themselves
as liberal is down 20. Those identifying as conservative, Reverend,
are up to 40. That's two times 20.

SHARPTON: I think you've got to redefine what conservatives are,
now. I think that a lot of what people who used to call themselves
conservatives, they're the extremists. They want to change America as
it has become. I think we are now the conservatives. We're trying to
conserve the America of the last 40 years that is making the progress
you talked about.

STEPHANOPOULOS: One feeling I think a lot of those conservatives
have -- I mean, and you see this across the polling -- independents
are going up in every poll. But these are, as Ron suggests, is Perot-
like independents, really, really angry, right now. And that could
cost Jon Corzine from your neighboring state, New Jersey, his race,
even though he's ahead right now.

SHARPTON: I think unfairly so. But I think you're right. I
think that Corzine was impacted in his tenure as governor by what
happened in terms of the national economy and things that were beyond
his control.

I have been in New Jersey. And I've been on the ground there,
and I think that the problem there is trying to get that message
through and to really raise a lot of the things concretely that he did
do in the state.

And I think that is going to be a close election. And I think
he'll win.

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: But in that state, you've also, though, got more
of a moderate Republican challenging the Republican nominee, and he's
costing Chris Christie, the Republican, how many votes, as well.

GILLESPIE: For right now...

STEPHANOPOULOS: Third party.

GILLESPIE: Yes, a third-party candidate. But, look,
independents -- New Jersey's the first state in the union with a
plurality of registered independent voters. They tend to be -- have
been leaning Democrat for years, but they are fed up with the
spending. They are fed up with the taxes. They're tired of seeing
businesses run out of the state and they're tired of seeing one-party
rule in Trenton.

And what we're seeing now is a reaction to that. And we've got
wind at our back for Chris Christie. I think Daggett's numbers will
come down between now and Tuesday, and they will accrue to -- they
will go to Christie.